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Because I have been busy, with just the regular real life stuff, not terribly interesting, and haven't had a lot of time, I think I'll do this meme as a way of kickstarting my journaling again.

Via Raincitygirl, a book meme:

Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag ten friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them! Not tagging anyone, feel free to do or do not:

1. Lord of the Rings. A book that enchanted me from the first reading, and continues to do so after at least 25 rereads.

2. A Tale of Two Cities. My introduction to Charles Dickens way back in high school. We read it in English Lit class in grade 10, and it opened up a whole new world for me. I haven't read it in years, but I remember it as one of the books that made me see the world differently.

3. The Water Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby by the Reverend Charles Kingsley (I had to look it up in Wikipedia) published in 1863. I don't remember much about it, but the feeling I had when my grade 3 teacher read it to us in class remains. I was enchanted, couldn't wait for the next chapter, and I think it was responsible for instilling a love of books in me that has stayed for lo these many years.

4. The Valdemar Series by Mercedes Lackey. Just a whole wonderful series that I return to for comfort like a warm blanket on a cold day.

5. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. Chris Hadfield's journey from dreaming of the stars as a boy to his time on the International Space Station. Inspiring and informative...and I'm a little jealous, 'cause I've secretly always wanted to be an astronaut.

6. Chocolat by Joanne Harris, and the followup book The Lollipop Shoes. Great characters, a hint of magic, and Paris. I found these books in an airport store and they kept me entertained on a boring flight.

7. Poldark by Winston Graham: a whole series of historical soap opera that kept me enthralled for months. (loved the TV series, too)

8. The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. The first series I read by Kay, one of my favourite writers.

9. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King. The best rendition of the Sherlock Holmes mythology I know of. Love the whole series.

10. The River That Flows Uphill, A Journey from the Big Bang to the Big Brain. A long title for a long book by William H. Calvin that uses a rafting trip down the Colorado River to explore nature, science and the wonder of life. Really fascinating.

Doing this was a lot harder than I thought! I keep thinking of other books I've read, and how they opened up worlds to me...no wonder I have so many. I can't imagine a world without a book to read.

Well, September is here, and it's feeling more like fall than summer. Although having said that, today was really hot! The long range forecast for here is a warmer than usual autumn, so I'm hoping that we'll have a good stretch of this lovely dry weather, with the odd day of rain for a bit of a change. My garden is growing so well, and if it stays nice I should have another crop of beans this month. Today I picked beans and squash and kale and swiss chard and a big tomato. It's so satisfying to sit down to dinner and know exactly where the veggies on my plate came from. Makes 'em taste even better.

With this great weather we've been able to get a lot of jobs done out at the farm; last evening Sue and Jack finished putting the crusher dust on Jubilee's paddock, a job that must have been exhausting. Jack brought the crusher to the paddock with the Bobcat, and Sue raked it flat. Makes me think my tiredness after a busy day at work in CCU was nothing at all! The paddock looks fabulous, and it's so nice for Jubs now. It was the wettest and muckiest of the paddocks last winter, and now it's all lovely and dry. There is just a bit of fixing up in Dusty and in Florrie's paddocks, and Rochelle's paddock to do, and then we will have dry paddocks for every horse this winter. In this wet climate, that's a huge deal. No more worrying about the horses getting thrush in their hooves from the wet footing.

They are moving along with the work in the house, too. Today they were painting the posts on the veranda, and stuff inside; I haven't been in the house for a week or so, so I'm not sure what's happening in there. I do know that the tile for the bathroom floors has been chosen; a lovely gray slate. It's getting closer and closer to moving in day, only a couple of months now. Almost time to start sorting and packing my stuff..

Speaking of jobs, I really should be working on the one I was going to get done tonight: we are getting new IV pumps at work, and there is a tutorial and quiz online that we're expected to complete. I have tried to get to it at work, but there's never enough time, and I refuse to give up my breaks to do it, so since I found I could access the site on my own computer, I figured I'd do it tonight. Hmmm. It's already 10 p.m. Maybe I won't go there.. Damn. all the best intentions in the world, and I still manage to procrastinate long enough to avoid doing it. (Cause it's a long, and IMHO, repetitive test that could be done more efficiently by just showing us the damned pumps, but who am I to tell the PTB how to teach the staff to use the equipment?)

Now to go take the laundry out of the dryer, and maybe do something about that test.

Some veggies from my garden! I'm quite delighted with the way my little garden has grown, in spite of the lateness of the planting. Beans, kale, swiss chard, all doing very well indeed. I've had some nice cucumbers, some tomatoes, and green onions; the salad stuff has been a little less successful because of the heat. I've planted another crop of beans so we should have more in the fall. I'd say the biggest success has to be the squash, which magically appeared on the manure pile (see the pictures?). I tossed my kitchen scraps on the pile, and hey presto! Squash as far as the eye can see. It loves the rich soil of the manure pile, and I swear there are at least 4 different types of squash, only one of which I recognize!

Hard to believe it's September already. Still some good growing time left, I hope.

That would be the theme for this past weekend. Happily for my peace of mind I wasn't present for the following OMFG moments at the farm (I was at work), but Sue gave me the story, as follows:

OMFG moment #1: Friday morning she found that Kiss (the mare we got from our Vet to use as a surrogate) had kicked down one of the walls in her stall, for the third time. Kiss was okay, and luckily there wasn't a horse in the next stall. The wall got rebuilt by one of the construction crew.

OMFG moment #2: Saturday morning Sue came out to find that either Sera or Florrie had knocked down the wall between their stalls. One of them must have rolled and kicked the wall during the night. There were boards in the stall and poor Florrie was kind of stuck in a corner. One of her legs was a little puffy, but no serious damage was done, thank heavens. Jack rebuilt the wall.

OMGF moment(s) #3: Figuring that Kiss might like being in the field instead of her stall, they decided to bring Midnight in and put him in his paddock and put Kiss out in the field with Rochelle on Sunday. Sue, Jack and Nicole made the change and watched to make sure the horses were okay...except it all went wrong. Kiss took one look at Rochelle and kicked her hard, then took off down the field. Poor Rochelle went over to stand by herself out of Kiss's way, not making any trouble at all. Kiss deliberately went over to Rochelle and proceeded to kick the crap out of my poor girl. Midnight was going beserk in his paddock, crashed into the fence and broke it. Nicole was in tears, and Sue was trying to keep everyone calm. They managed to grab Midnight and get him inside to his stall, and then got Kiss out of the field, and poor Rochelle too. They all went into their stalls while Jack fixed the fence. It was a pretty traumatic hour or so, and pretty much put paid to any thought that Kiss would get along with my horses! She is on probation now. Stall to paddock, no field for her. We're seriously rethinking whether we want to use her as a surrogate; she's showing some characteristics we aren't thrilled with, and I think it's partly that she's not used to being in this kind of environment. She came out of field with other mares at our Vet's place, so perhaps she's better off there. She belongs to our Vet anyway, so we may be sending her back and having him look for another mare for us. We have lots of time until next spring until we have to get rolling with the breeding.

Sometimes you think you're doing a favour, and then it all goes to hell in a handbasket. Luckily all the horses are fine; Rochelle and Midnight are together again in the field, BFFs.

Then my own personal OMG moment: yesterday, after we'd done all the work I decided to walk around the field before I went home to see if I could find Midnight's halter, which he managed to get rid of at some point. I walked down to the bottom of our 5 acre field, along the fence between the field and the blueberry farm next door, by the little stand of trees and bushes. The fence there is a bit on the rickity side, on our list of things to fix. I walked along the path and found a whole section of the fence that was down, which left a perfect access to the berry fields. I could just imagine Midnight getting in there. I spent the next hour fixing the fence as best I could. It's not great, but safe enough until Jack can fix it on the weekend. Funny thing, we are so careful to double chain the field gate but the back entrance was left open! Yikes. Glad I decided to search for that halter. Didn't find it, BTW.

Seems like I only have the time and energy to do this once a week lately. I keep saying that life is really busy, and it is, and I'm not complaining about it really, but where does the time go? I have thoughts about posting stuff, and then by the time I get home I seem to have lost those thoughts, so I end up just browsing around the internet. Oh well. Guess once a week is better than nothing, eh?

I had a day to myself today, owing to a mixup with my work schedule. I thought I was booked for days today and tomorrow, but it turned out to be only tomorrow. Since everyone expected me to be at work, nobody was expecting to see me..so I just stayed home and relaxed, waiting for the Doctor Who premiere.

I did clean out my closet (yesterday), after months of looking at it and thinking about doing it. Tossed a bunch of ratty tee shirts, threw out several pairs of shoes that were no longer fit for wearing, and bundled up a pile of clothes to take to the SPCA thrift store. What a wonderful feeling it was to get rid of all that old baggage. I open my closet door and just stare at the neatness that is in front of me...lovely.

Walked up to the Library and took out a pile of books to read. Started one, quickly tossed it aside because I was bored after the first two chapters. The good thing about taking out Library books is that I don't feel compelled to read them because I've spent the money on them. LOL.

I watched Doctor Who, and I was pleased. I like Peter Capaldi's Doctor, and I think it's going to be an interesting run.

I started rewatching Farscape this week. Watched two episodes during my night shifts (Netflix on my phone! Ain't technology wonderful. Couldn't sleep on my breaks, so it was good to have something to entertain me. How I love that show. There is so little on TV now that I have any desire to watch; it makes me long for the good old days of Buffy, and the various Star Treks, when it was all new and shiny.

I can't believe August is almost done. My garden is doing very nicely. I have had several good harvests of green beans, a few ripe tomatoes, some cucumbers and lots of kale and collard greens. It's growing almost in spite of me, because I certainly haven't put much effort into it beyond planting and watering. It's just great soil, good weather, and the natural tendency of plants to grow. Yay!! I'm going to be swamped by all the squash that's growing out on the manure pile in a couple of weeks; most of it is almost ready to pick, and there's a lot of it! Considering I didn't plant it on purpose, it's a nice little bonus. Tossing my kitchen scraps on the pile turns out to be a good thing. Full circle..squash seeds onto the pile, squash grows, gets eaten, squash seeds on the pile, round we go.

The horses are all fine, the house is coming along, and before we know it, it will be fall. Already it's getting dark a lot earlier, as the days wind down.

And another week flies by. I can't believe that it's the middle of August already. Blink and you missed it! At least this week has been a little cooler, so I've been sleeping better. A tired Jane is a grumpy Jane..

Had three really hectic days at work; I was so happy to finish last evening. It was perc valve Friday in CCU, the day they do the TAVIs (transcutaneous aortic valve placement, a procedure pioneered by one of our cardiologists in which a new heart valve is inserted via a femoral artery into the heart, thereby avoiding open heart surgery). It's done for high risk, generally elderly people who wouldn't tolerate open heart surgery, and it's pretty amazing. Most of the patients do well, and go home within 72 hours. We do three every Friday, as well as all the angiograms that get done every week day, and sometimes it gets pretty bloody busy in the CCU. Yesterday was no exception, and I was run off my feet. By around 6 p.m. I was trying to deal with both my patients who had come back from the Cath Lab within 20 minutes of each other. Taking vital signs and checking pulses every fifteen minutes, then pulling out the angio sheaths (the catheters in the femoral artery and vein) and all the other things...whew. My coworkers tried to help, but they had their own stuff to do to. I found myself standing in the hall dithering..trying to do ten things at once, and getting nothing much done at all. So I took 15 minutes to shovel my dinner down my throat, because I'm sure my blood sugar was low. I ended up working 45 minutes overtime, getting my charting done. I was very happy to get home and collapse. So when the phone rang early this morning (at 5:45) and staffing asked me to come in, it was all I could do not to laugh hysterically. No way. And again just now, they called wanting to know if I could work tomorrow. Nope. I think I deserve a few days off. After all, I'm supposed to be retired!!

I was out at the farm this afternoon to see my horses and check on my garden. It was lovely, a bit overcast and cool. Sue and Jack went out to do their weekend shopping, and I was there alone. It was so peaceful, except for the propane cannons going off at the blueberry farm next door of course..we're used to them and hardly notice usually, but when it's super quiet, the bangs really echo! Pretty soon they'll have harvested all the berries, and it will be quiet again. Midnight and Rochelle are still having a great time in the field; Rochelle is getting spoiled, and hates coming in to her stall. She'd better enjoy herself now, because soon enough the weather will change and they'll have to come back into their stalls and paddocks. But for now it's good.

Nicole was telling me that Midnight comes down to the sandy patch of ground by the gate every morning to get a drink and then lies down for a nap. Rochelle comes too, and once Midnight is down, she lies down beside him, even though he pins his ears at her. She just wants to have a wee cuddle with her BFF. Seems like they do this every morning, but I have yet to see it.

I checked out the squash plants that are growing on the manure pile in the field; there seems to be at least 4 different varieties. Acorn, butternut, and something I think is a delicata and maybe a turban squash. Funny thing is, I only remember eating the acorn and butternut varieties! There must be at least 40 squashes there, from what I could see. I picked a couple of the delicata and this evening I roasted them to make pureed squash to freeze. I toasted the squash seeds too; they're very tasty with a bit of salt. A nice healthy snack.

Picked a bunch of beans, some peas and a couple of cucumbers, as well as swiss chard and kale, from my garden. Some rhubarb too. There is something so satisfying about growing vegetables, then sitting down to dinner and enjoying the taste of something that was growing not two hours before. I'm very pleased with life at the moment.

I stopped off at my friends' bookstore on the way home to give Jill some of the bounty from the garden. Her father loves rhubarb, so she took some for him (hers didn't do well this year). I was browsing through the books, and came across a book I think Sue will enjoy: Poirot and me by David Suchet. Sue is a huge fan of the Poirot series on PBS, as am I, and we were just talking about them today. I bought the book, and have been reading it all evening. Fascinating insights into character development by an actor who has captured Christie's vision of Poirot like no other, a really enjoyable read. Going to finish it this weekend before I pass it on to Sue.

Standing in the afternoon sunshine, surrounded by blackberry bushes, beating back the brambles to find the biggest,sweetest berries this side of heaven. For every two in the bucket there is one for my mouth,a burst of juicy goodness that says summer to me like nothing else. I think it's partly because I have to work for it, the berries protect themselves with sharp little swords, so it's just that much sweeter when I pop one in my mouth.

I had a lovely day. Was out at the farm all by myself this afternoon; Sue and Jack went to the Abbotsford air show; I helped Nicole bring in the horses, she left and all was quiet and peaceful. I planted some lettuce and watered the garden, then decided to see if the blackberries were ripe. An hour and a half later I had a pail full of berries, and a feeling of stillness and tranquility in my heart.

I am at a loss for words, subject wise. Can't come up with anything smart and to the point to lead into my post, so I'll just say hello, everyone. How are you? Keeping busy? Enjoying the summer? I know I am. Even though I'm a little more busy than I would like, I'm doing fine. Can't believe we're halfway through summer already. Wow.

I kind of did myself a disservice this week by booking more shifts than I really want to: 4 dayshifts in a row, ugh. Sometimes when I'm prebooking shifts for a month away I don't realize how much I'm going to end up working; the trouble with being a casual is that you have to take the work when it's there, and realize that some months shifts are going to be a little thin on the ground. Oh well, I'll just think of the money.

Today was the day we do all the stalls because it's our employee's day off. We really motored and got all the work done by 10:30! It really helped that Jack was there to push all the wheelbarrows to the manure pile and empty them for us, so Sue and I could just clean. We wanted to get it done before Jack went to work (he's working the afternoon shift),and before it got too hot.

It was stinking hot this afternoon. I was working in my garden and it felt like I was in a sauna, the sweat was just dripping off me. Picked some peas and some greens for dinner, did a little weeding. I have to plant more salad stuff and some spinach for a fall harvest. My little garden is doing quite well, considering how late a start it got.

There are 4 of the biggest squash plants you've ever seen growing on the manure pile; some of the seeds from my kitchen scraps germinated, and presto! giant squash plants. I checked today, and I think I have butternut and acorn squashes. Lots of little squashes on the plants. They certainly like the manure pile!

We had someone come and mow the field on Saturday. Midnight and Rochelle are really having a great time out there. Rochelle was super pissed that she had to come in for a few hours while the mower was going; I think she's getting a bit spoiled with all that space and grass. It's good for her, she's looking great, getting lots of muscle. I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do about getting her under saddle in September. The hardest thing about having young horses is getting them started; finding someone who can do that isn't easy, as we've learned with the others. I have some options, I'm just trying to do the best thing. I love that little horse; she's such a sweet tempered girl, and very smart. I think we'll have a fun fall and winter working together.

oops. Almost burned the rhubarb. I'm making stewed rhubarb with the rhubarb from the garden. I love stewed rhubarb. So tart and sweet, delicious with yogurt. mmm.

I've finished my Dresden Files reread. It's really interesting when you read a series from start to finish (or to the end of the current chapter), knowing how it all ends, and seeing little foreshadowings, and wondering if the author had it all mapped out, or if he took an off the cuff remark and later on used it to swing the story line in a direction totally unexpected. Now I'm anxious for the next book!

I am slowly getting to the season end of "The 100". I think I have 3 more episodes to go, but I just haven't had time to watch. I really think it's a show with lots going for it, and I've been quite impressed by the acting and the plot. Good show. And I just realized that I still haven't watched the season finale of "Orphan Black". Must do that ASAP.

Quite excited to see that Doctor Who is starting next month. It's been a long time since the Christmas special. I think Peter Capaldi is going to make a very intriguing Doctor. Going to have a great suit, too.

Okay, time to shut it down for the night. My eyes are starting to close as I type, so I will take the hint.

I last posted a week ago..seems like yesterday. I really don't know where the time goes, it just seems to zoom by my best intentions to post regularly. LOL. Actually, I blame my new smart phone. Since I got it, with its ability to connect me to the internet and email, I haven't had to turn on my computer as often. Posting from the phone is a challenge, 'cause the teeny tiny keyboard makes me very impatient. Of course, there hasn't been a lot to post about, other than "hey, working" or "hey, working at my non paying job at the farm". Keeps me busy.

I am happy to say I've had my first harvest from my little garden this week. I picked snap peas, swiss chard and collard greens, and one ripe tomato, and had a tasty stir fry for dinner. The salad greens went straight from seed to tiny plant to seed because of the heat, so that was a bust. The beans are growing like a Jack in the Beanstock bean, and I hope they'll produce lots of beans. I have to plant more stuff. Was going to plant more lettuce and spinach today, but it was raining too hard to work in the garden. Still, I didn't have to water it!

The house is getting closer and closer to completion. The drywallers have been busy, and the builder wants us to pick paint colours, and the outside work is almost all done. The tile guy is putting the tile on the veranda, and the siding is almost all on, and OMG, it all looks so gorgeous. A friend gave Sue a beautiful magazine which is all about using colour, which is a challenge when dealing with a house this big. We want it to keep the flow, but not to look like boring builder beige. Lots to consider.

We have three of our young horses in training, so just about every day one of them is being ridden. We have a schedule so everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Today Dusty got ridden from 9 to 10, Florrie from 10 to 11, and then Sera had a lesson with our dressage teacher at 3p.m. They are all going really well, and we're so proud of them. Florrie has just been started; she's had all of 8 sessions with a rider, and she is being so good. It's a lot of work, because once you start them, you can't just stop. I am looking forward to getting Rochelle going in the fall, but right now we have enough on our plate.It's so much fun, and so rewarding to see these brilliant young horses getting started on their careers. It's why we work so hard.

I'm going to have a day at home tomorrow. I think I'm going to spend some time going through my closet and toss all those old stained teeshirts, and all the clothes I don't wear anymore but have hung on to. Time to clean house, so to speak.

I might even have time to make a rhubarb crisp. I picked a bunch of rhubarb from the garden today, and I'm thinking rhubarb-apple crisp might be nice.

Holy crap, what a day. ICU was very ICUish today. In other words, a zoo. Five Code Blues, four admissions, two deaths, one patient to the OR, and so on..it just never stopped all day long. Being a weekend there were only two Residents on, and they just went from one code to the next, along with the nurses on the team. We actually ran out of the emergency drug boxes for the code carts at one point. Our ward aide was off sick, and hadn't been replaced, so that meant no one to stock the carts and keep the unit from looking like a bomb had gone off...we don't appreciate how much the ward aides do for us until they're not there, as is often the case in life. The Charge Nurse ordered pizza for the staff for dinner, because it was obvious no one was going to get a dinner break. That was a nice morale booster!

I transferred my patient to the ward at 6 p.m. and got ready for the next patient who was in ER. Finally ER called to say he had extubated himself on the way up to us so they took him back to Emerg to monitor him. I think he was an OD or something, so he just kind of woke up. But never mind, there was another patient who needed to come to us. By that time the night staff had arrived, and I escaped.

Got home, ate the rest of the Pad Thai I'd had for lunch, and fell asleep on the couch for about half an hour. The apartment is finally cool; it was super hot today, and the place was pretty warm when I got home. I really don't do well in the heat.

Maybe it was the heat, or maybe it was the steady pace of the day, but my feet were killing me. It felt so fabulous to take of my shoes and socks and go barefoot.

Hmmm. I think I have some ice cream in the freezer. Yup. White chocolate raspberry. Diving in!

Lordy, we are almost halfway through July. I am far behind on my DW/LJ updating.. It's hard to find the time to keep up with everything, but I'm trying. What with working, gardening, farm stuff and general life maintaining, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I haven't been watching much TV, although I have shows I want to catch up with; I just haven't felt like it; did watch the Amazing Race Canada on Monday, and it was fun. I've been more into reading in the evenings of late, kind of enjoying the peace and quiet. Also since I got my new smart phone I don't have to boot up the laptop just to check my email, and making comments etc. using the teeny tiny keyboard is a pain, so I've neglected updating here. Trying to do better about that.

Best news: My tax return came yesterday! Thank you Revenue Canada. Much appreciated, for sure. Going to pay a chunk on my VISA, and put some aside for training my horse Rochelle in the fall; we're getting Floriana going now, so we have that to pay for too. Flori is such a spectacular horse; I think she may be the best horse we've bred yet, and everyone who sees her agrees. She's going to be a star dressage horse, with the proper training and rider, so we owe it to her to give her the best start. We've found a great rider, someone who knows how to get young horses started properly. She works for Leslie Reid, who is a very well known dressage rider in Canada, so she has lots of experience. It's not cheap, but we have to have the help, and give our horses the best start we can. So, thanks to some nice tax return money, that's a little easier for now. I am waiting until fall to start Rochelle; she's having a lovely summer in the field with Midnight. Just don't have time to get another horse going, we already have Dusty, Sera and Flori to do at least 3 times a week each. Once we get them started we have to keep going so as not to waste all that time and training.

The house is getting closer to being ready. Drywalling is happening, and my apartment looks amazing now that there are actual walls. The whole house is just beautiful. Getting very excited about moving in...although it's still going to be a few more months.

It's been hot and sunny here this week, real summer. My garden is growing well; I can practically see the beans grow in front of my eyes! I've started picking radishes and some of the salad greens. Out on the manure pile in the field there are 4 huge squash plants growing, from seeds I tossed with my kitchen scraps. The squash really seem to like the pile, lots of good organic material for them I guess. I'm tempted to toss some other seeds there just to see what comes up!

I have to get organized for work tomorrow; the second of three day shifts.

I'm so tired. Not exhausted physically tired, just lack of sleep tired. I was quite busy this week past with various things, including a very pleasant stint as tour guide for friends, ending with two busy night shifts at work. I was up all day Friday, worked that night, didn't sleep much yesterday, worked last night, and didn't sleep much today. So my eyes are a little heavy right now. Yawn. Gonna get myself off to bed early tonight and hopefully catch up on my time in dreamland.

I got home this morning at 8a.m. and had just walked in the door when the phone rang..it was CCU, wanting to know if I wanted to work today! Since I had just worked for 12 hours in ICU, I felt quite sure I didn't. LOL.

I had a busyish shift, more emotionally than physically tiring. My patient was a 40 year old man who had a sudden cardiac arrest - he collapsed on the street, got CPR by bystanders before the ambulance arrived, but had a very long down time before he got a heartbeat back. As a result, he has very significant anoxic brain damage, and his prognosis is grim. He had a steady stream of visitors all night long, all of whom were understandably upset. It's hard to tell people that their friend is most likely going to die, and that if his brain is injured beyond repair there is no point in keeping him on life support, and I'm sorry but no, just because you've heard of people coming out of comas it doesn't necessarily mean he will. I try to say these things in a sensitive and caring way, but in my head I know that this poor guy is for all intents and purposes dead. It's very sad, but sometimes it's just the way it goes. All I can do is pass tissues and let them cry. One of the less fun parts of my job.

So today I slept a couple of hours, then got up and made coffee, sat on the couch and finished another Dresden novel, played Candycrush, made some moves on Words for Friends, and made some chicken noodle soup for dinner. I was going to catch up on one of the shows I'm watching on Netflix (The 100) but I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake much longer.

Awww. Doggy copilot! Wish I hadn't been driving so I could have taken a picture. Driving along 16th Avenue near the Campbell Valley Park enjoying a little sun and country air this morning, I found myself behind a burly fellow on a big motorcycle. Attached to the bike was a sidecar which looked custom made to accommodate his copilot- a yellow dog who looked like a Lab-pitbull cross. Doggy was grinning a huge doggy grin, nose into the wind, red neckerchief rakishly askew. From time to time the dog would look over at the man and bark, as if he was asking his friend "are you having fun? 'Cause I am having a blast!"

It was so sweet with a very high cute factor. Gave me a I just wish I could have taken a picture without getting arrested for distracted driving. LOL.

So disappointing. I indulged myself and splurged on some locally produced blue cheese yesterday. I love blue cheese and I was eager to try a fresh new one. What a letdown; the cheese has a weird astringent peppery bite, highly unpleasant. Yuck.

Much better, the fresh berries. Raspberries and strawberries, picked that very day. Just finished the raspberries with full fat Greek yogurt, definitely a yum.

I'm quite tired tonight; busy day. Got stuck in a big traffic jam on my way to the farm so I was feeling a bit flustered when I got there. We hustled and got the horses out so I could get to cleaning stalls. Poor Sue is still on the injured list, so it was up to me. I managed to get through all of them by lunchtime. Yay me.

I put a fence around the vegetable garden yesterday and when it was done I realized I had miscalculated and there isn't much room to walk in it. I'm going to have to do some serious tiptoeing! Things are growing, as seeds like to do! Now if I can avoid stomping on my poor wee plants..

I got back home last evening safe and sound. Not a bad flight. I bought a book in the airport in Ottawa, and had time to finish it by the time the plane landed in Vancouver. (It was a Stephanie Plum mystery by Janet Evanovich) I haven't read many of the series, but there was a very limited selection in the store. I found it quite enjoyable, good airplane reading.The cats were happy to see me, and I was happy to see my own bed.

It was a good visit, the wedding went off with only minor hitches, no catastrophes or hissy fits, all good stuff. My sister Mary Anne is an organizing genius, really. She basically dedicated the last year to getting this wedding done (Allie is her only daughter, and they are very close, so it was very important to her to get it done right). I worked as directed, helping with prep work and set up; my other sister Sandy and her daughter Kim came on Friday for lunch, and we all spent the afternoon folding napkins and inserting sets of fork, knife, spoon, in all the napkins. Mary Anne made Sabayon sauce for the fruit salad dessert, and we all made up the plates of appetizers..we had quite the assembly line in place!

Wedding day was iffy weatherwise. Cloudy, occasional spits of rain..very worrisome. They waited until the last minute to decide whether the ceremony would be outside as planned, or in the big tent. Luckily the rain held off, the bride and groom stood under the arbor, and the ceremony finished with everyone staying dry. It was a lovely wedding, and I think my little sister shed a few tears.

It was great to have the chance to visit with my brothers and their wives, my Uncle Jack (who is 88, and doing well), and my various nieces and nephews.

After all the speeches and the dinner, the young crowd started the serious partying, so we left them to it. Sandy, Kim and I drove back to Kim's place outside of Smith Falls, a little town about an hour away from Mary Anne's. It was nice to be in a quiet place...I don't think I would have been able to sleep much with all the celebrating going on back there.

Sunday the three of us worked on Kim's gardens. She and her husband built a new house on two acres of woodland, basically just cut a small open area in the forest, so there's a lot of work to do on the landscaping. We were building a rock garden along the roadside edge of the property, so we hauled a lot of soil and rocks and worked really hard. Looked good when we finished. In the evening we drove in to Perth and had dinner at the Pub where Kim's son works. He's the chef there, and made us a nice meal. When we got back home, we had wine and cheese and a relaxing spell in the hot tub. I slept like a baby that night!

Yesterday Nick came and made us lunch (shrimp-mango pasta salad, yummy), before they drove me to the airport in Ottawa. Then it was back home again.

Like all trips, it seemed to go by at warp speed, while at the same time feeling like I'd been away for ages and ages. I am happy to be home, although I would have preferred not to bring all the bug bites with me. I'd forgotten how bad the black flies and mosquitoes are back there!

Heading out tomorrow on my way back east for my niece's wedding. It's been a couple of busy days getting things organized, but I think I'm as ready as I can be.IsI was so tired yesterday after cleaning all the stalls and paddocks (Jack emptied the wheelbarrows for me, which really helped) that I fell asleep sitting in front of my computer. Naturally when I went to bed I woke right up.

Midnight and Rochelle are very happy together in the field. Midnight spent part of the afternoon snoozing in the sunshine. Rochelle has a few cuts and scrapes, nothing serious, and lots of bug bites. Have to keep fly spray handy.

Time to get the laundry out and choose what to pack from my vast wardrobe.

Hurray, we've found someone to do the barn work! Nice young woman who has her own horse, rides dressage, and is currently working part time at a busy stable with 25 horses. She was very keen, seemed like a mature and motivated young woman. She'll do nicely. And even if she only stays til the fall, at least we've got time to work out something else. The girl who is leaving is going to stay until the 16th, which covers the time I'm going to be gone for my niece's wedding. Huge relief.

Booked my flight tonight. Gulp. Air travel ain't cheap. But it's for family, so I have to do what I have to do. Now all I have to do is figure out what the heck I'm going to wear to the wedding.

I'm working the next three days in CCU, then I'm off for 10 days! Feels like a huge stretch of time...and I'm looking forward to it.

With all the bad news we're inundated with every single day, I sometimes have to remind myself of all the goodness there is in the world. I'm no Pollyanna, always looking on the bright side of life, but I believe there has to be a balance. If all we see is the negative, dark side of our world, pretty soon we'll feel so defeated we become convinced there is nothing we can do to make it better. If we close our eyes to the badness, we pretend the world is just a cakewalk and probably do nothing to make it better. So I believe we have to look at the world's problems clearly and honestly, while reminding ourselves of all that is wonderful and joyful, in order to motivate ourselves to make the world the one we want to live in and leave to our children.

So to that end, I've decided to try to find at least 3 wonderful things to pay attention to every day. For today:

The sight of the barn swallows coming and going from their nest in the big barn. One of them was basically hovering like a hummingbird, while his/her mate chattered away like an enthusiastic cheerleader. They're charming and beautiful, and make the barn a happy place.

On my way home the other day, I saw what looked like something dragging a branch across the road...as I got closer, I realized it was a mamma duck with a string of ducklings trailing behind her, crossing the road. At the curb, the ducklings hopped up and followed Mamma..except for one, who seemed to be a little more awkward. He hopped, and missed, and hopped and missed, and I held my breath and willed him on, and then he hopped, and made it up the little bank, and off he went with his family. I cheered!

Goldie won the big challenge class (jumping 3'6") at the Thunderbird Show yesterday! She was clear both rounds with the fastest time. It was a big class with some very good horses. She got a big red ribbon, a ceramic plate, and $200. Jack was thrilled to bits, as we all are. Yay!

I got my garden planted yesterday. Now I just have to get a fence up so the cats don't dig in it, and the bunnies don't eat the veggies.

We're still looking for a new worker for the barn; we interviewed someone today who looks promising. Hope it works out. I have to buy my ticket to go to my niece's wedding, and I don't have much time left. Fingers crossed.